This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Carlone, D. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

The Ambiguous Nature of a Management Guru Lecture

Providing Answers While Deepening Uncertainty

University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Each year, managers and employees spend billions of dollars retaining management consultants, buying business books, and attending seminars to regain certainty. Some of this quest occurs in the lectures of star management consultants, such as Stephen R. Covey. For his audience, a Covey lecture is a liminoid event, that is, a middle phase in a secular rite of passage from "ineffective" to "effective." Viewed through the lens of liminoidity, the lecture (a) disrupts the ontology of business subjects, (b) gains force by blending sacred wisdom and technical instruction, (c) makes permanent a transitional stage, and (d) situates the lecturer as guru and audience members as neophytes through their interaction with one another. Despite the quest for certainty, Covey's lectures simultaneously ease and deepen uncertainty and anxiety.

Key Words: management guru • liminoid • liminal • rite of passage • Stephen R. Covey

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?